Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Alyallen]

I found this article interesting. I didn't think O'Reilly's comments to be offensive. I found them to be honest and encouraging in a way. I think the groups protesting were just trying to find something negative to say because of the two people involved...

Group points out O'Reilly race comments

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer Tue Sep 25, 11:04 PM ET

NEW YORK - After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly told a radio audience he "couldn't get over the fact" that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia's and other restaurants.

"It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun," he said. "And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all."

O'Reilly said his fellow patrons were tremendously respectful as he ate dinner with civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

The comments were made during O'Reilly's nationally syndicated radio broadcast last week. The liberal media watchdog Media Matters for America called attention to them by distributing a transcript and audio clip on the Internet.

"This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings," said Bill Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News Channel. "It's sad."

O'Reilly spoke during a general discussion about racial relations with Fox News analyst Juan Williams. O'Reilly said he believed black Americans were "starting to think more and more for themselves" and backing away from a race-based culture encouraged by Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

He said he treated Sharpton to dinner to thank him for appearing on his Fox News Channel show.

O'Reilly pointed to the sameness of Sylvia's and other restaurants as a marker of racial progress. "And that's really what this society's all about now here in the USA. There's no difference. There's no difference."

O'Reilly also noted that he went to an Anita Baker concert recently where the audience was evenly mixed between blacks and whites.

"The band was excellent, but they were dressed in tuxedoes, and this is what white America doesn't know, particularly people who don't have a lot of interaction with black Americans," he said. "They think the culture is dominated by Twista, Ludacris and Snoop Dogg."

Williams concurred that too many people believe there's little else in black culture beyond profane rap.

"That's right," O'Reilly said. "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, `M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.'"

Sharpton said he was taken aback that anyone would be surprised at how blacks acted at Sylvia's and will ask O'Reilly on "The O'Reilly Factor" Wednesday to explain what he meant. Nothing O'Reilly said at the dinner was offensive, said Sharpton spokeswoman Rachel Noerdlinger.

Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters, called O'Reilly's comments "ignorant and racially charged."

http://tinyurl.com/2xn8vy

[happeningthang]

[Alyallen]

[stevemcgarrett]

Much ado about nothing.

Conservatives whites are NEVER given the benefit of the doubt when they comment on race in America; the double standard persists.

Hillary can make her trite little Indian immigrant in the convenience store joke and get away with it.

Shelby Steele, the brilliant black essayist, pointed this out many years ago, even admitting that some blacks enjoying baiting whites, painting them into a verbal corner until they say something that smacks of racism, which they didn't intend in the first place.

Good for O'Reilly to defend himself and it shows class that he invited Sharpton to dinner on his home turf.

And what O'Reilly said is correct--and, by the way, I've loved Anita Baker's blessed R&B since her debut album two decades ago: sultry, sexy, sensuous, the heir apparent to Lena Horne.

[Alyallen]

Bill O'Reilly says he's being smeared

By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer 37 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said Wednesday his critics took remarks he made about a famed Harlem restaurant out of context and "fabricated a racial controversy where none exists." He criticized the liberal group Media Matters for America as "smear merchants" for publicizing statements he made on his radio show last week.

O'Reilly told his radio audience that he dined with civil rights activist Al Sharpton at Sylvia's recently and "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference" between the black-run restaurant and others in New York City.

It was just like a suburban Italian restaurant, he said. "There wasn't any kind of craziness at all," he said.

O'Reilly told The Associated Press that Media Matters had "cherry-picked" remarks out of a broader conversation about racial attitudes. He had told listeners that his grandmother � and many other white Americans � feared blacks because they didn't know any and were swayed by violent images in black culture.

"If you listened to the full hour, it was a criticism of racism on the part of white Americans who are ignorant of the fact that there is no difference between white and black anymore," he told the AP. "Circumstances may be different in their lives but we're all Americans. Anyone who would be offended by that conversation would have to be looking to be offended."

His radio show was a conversation with Fox News contributor Juan Williams, author of a book about the coarseness of some black culture. Williams defended O'Reilly during a Tuesday appearance on "The O'Reilly Factor."

"It's so frustrating," Williams said. "They want to shut you up. They want to shut up anybody who has an honest discussion about race."

The controversy was similar to one that enveloped presidential candidate Joe Biden last winter. When Biden praised rival Barack Obama as "articulate" and "clean," many saw this as a way of conveying these were unusual characteristics for blacks.

Sylvia's manager Trenness Woods-Black told the New York Daily News that O'Reilly's remarks were "insulting" and showed he has little knowledge of the black community.

At one point on the radio show, Williams mentioned that too many people see little else in black culture beyond profane rap. "That's right," O'Reilly said. "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, `M.F.-er, I want more iced tea.'"

Karl Frisch, spokesman for Media Matters, said it is typical for O'Reilly to criticize his group for merely reporting what he says.

"We didn't call him a racist," Frisch said. "We said his comments were ignorant and racially charged and we stand by that."

O'Reilly said the Williams conversation was carried on more than 400 radio stations and there wasn't one complaint from a listener.

"This isn't about a racially insensitive remark," he said. "Anybody can listen to the unedited version of the conversation on www.billoreilly.com. You want to think I'm insensitive to race, you go right ahead."

The real story, he said, was about the "corrupt media culture" where outlets like CNN and MSNBC do stories about his remarks "because they're getting killed in the ratings."

"The O'Reilly Factor" is seen by more people � 2.2 million average this year � than its direct competitors on MSNBC and CNN combined. MSNBC's "Countdown" with Keith Olbermann averages 721,000 viewers in the time slot while CNN's 8 p.m. show averages 611,000, according to Nielsen Media Research.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070926/ap_en_tv/tv_o_reilly_sylvia_s

Edited to include url link in article...

[Adventurer]

I am not a fan of O'Reilly and not because he is a Conservative. I have heard so many stores about him badgering people who he didn't agree with, not giving them much of a chance to defend themselves if they didn't agree with them i.e. being somewhat of an on-air bully. I prefer talk show hosts like Mathews. He is more of a centrist in my opinion, and I prefer listening to centrists. As far O'Reilly's comments, if they were made, they show ignorance, but not malice and the intent should be taken into consideration. Anyway, you keep hearing of how whites make bad remarks about black people, but not the other way around. People are afraid to bring that up. I believe in Canada an African American (from the US) made some claims about people in the league being racist and they let him have it, because they weren't going to be slandered as far as they were concerned. I will give Steve that much, but I won't defend O'Reilly if those comments were made, but I don't think they were malicious.

[Pligganease]

I think some people are missing the point of Bill's remarks. It appears to me that what he was saying is that ignorant people with their stereotypes are wrong. And, he was saying that his race was not an issue in that place, which would be contradictory to what many of his viewers and listeners believe.

Surely Bill is a provocateur, but I don't think he's racist. And, I don't think he's stupid enough to say something racist in front of the one man that would love nothing more than for him to say something racist.

Now, if Ann Coulter had said it...

[Alyallen]

[Pligganease]